Two weeks ago, sorority sisters and fraternity brothers ate hamburgers and mingled on the well-kept lawn of the nicest house on fraternity row at the invitation of College President James Freedman.
Having only recently returned from his six-month sabbatical, Freedman said he was more than happy to get back into the routine of the College's top administrator.
"There are two things you miss," said Freedman, who spent his sabbatical in Cambridge, Mass. "The first is the structure of a schedule. Unstructured time is wonderful and I'm glad I had it but by the end of six months, you really miss the structure you know."
The second thing he missed was his colleagues.
"I have just loved coming back and working with all the people I worked with for many years before going -- it's been great," he said.
Back again in suit and tie, behind his desk on the third floor of the Parkhurst administration building, Freedman reflected on his sabbatical.
"It went wonderfully. It was a very satisfying, very relaxing six months," he said. "I did a good deal of reading and you just spend a lot of time reflecting.You don't have the slam-bang of daily schedules to overwhelm you and it really was wonderful in terms of having an opportunity to read and think."
While in Cambridge, Freedman said he finished the book he has been working on, "Idealism and Lib-
eral Education," which the University of Michigan Press will publish in January.
Finishing the book would have been a difficult feat to accomplish while in Hanover, he said.
"Because without a block of time, it's just hard to do these things," Freedman said. "You do them on evenings and on weekends and it was just a pleasure to have the free time."
The six-month break from Dartmouth also gave Freedman a chance to relax after the receiving chemotherapy for the testicular cancer he was diagnosed with in April, 1994.
Having completed chemotherapylast September, Freedman said he must undergo a cat scan every three months.
Freedman said that for testicular cancer patients, there is an 18-month and a five-year checkpoint.
"After 18 months, the risk of recurrence goes down dramatically and then they want to give you five years," he said.
Freedman said he has 11 months to go before hitting the 18 month mark.
"I'm feeling absolutely fine," he said, looking it. "I'm feeling very, very good."
Although Freedman said he did not believe Dartmouth changed during the time he was away, he said he had returned with a fresh perspective.
"You certainly come back with a sense of the excellence of Dartmouth," he said.
While on sabbatical, Freedman said he spent time with administrators from Harvard University and other universities, from which he deduced that "our problems are relatively minor and our assets are very, very great."
Describing the quality of different facets of the College, Freedman gestured over his shoulder toward the Green. "We really are remarkably blessed in the quality of this place," he said.
Eight years as president
This year marks Freedman's eighth as College president, making him the senior president of the Ivy League.
An idea that "startles me -- really startles me," he said.
But Freedman said he will remain at Dartmouth for the indefinite future.
When Freedman set out as College president in July, 1987, not all members of the College community received him with open arms.
His infamous comments about Catullus and cellos did not stand him in good stead with alumni and students who were fearful that he would change the face of Dartmouth.
But Freedman received a standing ovation from students and alumni last year at Convocation and again this June at Commencement .
"I think when you bring in a president from the outside, who is the first president since 1822 not to be a Dartmouth graduate or a Dartmouth faculty member, you're truly bringing in an outsider," Freedman said last week. "I don't know, those first years were very bumpy years, and I think there has been a lot of apprehension about bringing in an outsider."
He said he feels students have always been wonderful.
"I think people accepted me on my own terms," Freedman said.
No one likes change, he said.
"But in fact I think it's how you manage change and whether change reinforces the central values of the institution," he said.
This, Freedman added, is thetype of change the College has affected.
"The changes we have had ... havemade Dartmouth more Dartmouth -- they haven't changed Dartmouth from what it truly is," he said.
"I think the things I preach -- which I still preach -- alarmed some people then," he continued. "But I must say that I think those set of things that we've done these last eight years are evidence that one can strengthen Dartmouth at the same time as making it even more Dartmouth."
Dartmouth's advancements
Dartmouth, Freedman said, has changed in so many significant ways over the last eight years.
Freedman listed the Will to Excel Capital Campaign, which just completed its fourth year, and the new curriculum, implemented for the Class of 1998, as two major changes that have occurred at the College in the last eight years.
The institution of four major programs of individualized study for students was also important, he said. Presidential scholars, Women in Science, Mellon Minority Academic Career Fellowship and the E. E. Just Program, which provides internships and programs in science to minority students, all started under Freedman.
He said he is also proud of the College's development of its fiscal budget, which has balanced each year of Freedman's administration.
"We have escaped the kind of severe financial stringency of many other schools," he said.
In addition, Freedman pointed out that the last eight years have seen the arrival of a number of distinguished administrators and faculty members including College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton, Provost Lee Bollinger, Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg and the three deans of Dartmouth's professional schools of business, medicine and engineering.
Admissions, Freedman said, has also improved significantly.
"We have made more progress in the last eight years in the strength and in the quality of the freshman class than any other Ivy League school," he said. "We have come further. I think we're doing just splendidly in admissions."
For the future, Freedman said he hopes the College pushes to make Dartmouth "as intellectually strong as we can make it."
"Students are here for just four years and these are the four premier years of their lives for intellectual stimulation and academic growth," he said. "So I hope we're going to continue to press on Dartmouth for a place where the intellectual experience is of the first order."
On campus
For Dartmouth's intellectual experience to remain at the highest level, Freedman said the College will remain committed to affirmative action, a question that has been debated on campuses nation-wide.
Freedman described the University of California's recent decision to prohibit affirmative action as "tragically wrong."
"I think affirmative action is absolutely essential for a quality institution," he said.
Freedman said it is essential that Dartmouth remain committed to affirmative action.
"It is essential to both the quality of environment you want on campus, which is a metropolitan environment that includes people of all races and backgrounds," he said. "That education is important -- that students of all backgrounds learn from each other."
Maintaining affirmative action is also necessary, Freedman said, for Dartmouth to uphold its obligation to train national leaders.
"You can't train only national leaders who are white and of no other race or background," he said.
But while Freedman insists that affirmative action is a mainstay at the College there are other areas he feels are open to question.
Freedman said he hopes the College will re-examine the Dartmouth-Plan, instituted to cope with the influx of students brought by coeducation.
He said he believes Dean of the Faculty James Wright may be at the point of recommending such an investigation as early as this fall.
"I must say that my own view, prior to looking at it, prior to an investigational study, is that we pay a very high price for the D-Plan," Freedman said.
"There are clearly advantages and everyone knows what they are," he said. "But the disadvantages of a 10-week term and the disadvantages of not being able to assign more writing I think are the two [largest] detriments."
Housing is also an issue that Freedman said he believes both the College and students will scrutinize further.
